Azerbaijani journalist kidnapped across Georgia-Azerbaijan border

The kidnapping of an Azerbaijani investigative journalist in broad daylight in Tbilisi raises questions about how far the west is willing to tolerate Azerbaijan's authoritarian slide.

Afghan Mukhtarli has been charged with smuggling in Baku after being kidnapped in Tbilisi. Image: MeydanTV. On 29 May, an Azerbaijani journalist and political activist was kidnapped in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi and then illegally brought across the border to Azerbaijan,
where he reappeared less than 24 hours later in Azerbaijani border
police custody, Human Rights Watch said today. He now faces bogus,
politically motivated charges of illegal border crossing and smuggling.
Georgian authorities should promptly investigate the kidnapping of the
journalist, Afgan Mukhtarli, and Azerbaijani authorities should
immediately release and drop all charges against him.

Mukhtarli
and his wife, Leyla Mustafayeva, also an investigative journalist, have
been living in Georgia since 2015 to escape the Azerbaijani
government’s vicious crackdown against its critics. There are fears that
Mukhtarli faces the imminent threat of ill-treatment in custody.

“Mukhtarli
went to Georgia seeking safety, but it seems he was not far enough out
of the Azerbaijani government’s clutches,” said Giorgi Gogia,
South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. “The Georgian government
also shares responsibility for his fate and should come clean about its
role in his illegal detention and return.”

Mukhtarli, 43,
is an investigative journalist who has worked for several independent
and opposition media outlets, including the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, Meydan TV and others. His investigative stories exposed
corruption in Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense, and the extensive
business networks owned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his
affiliates in neighboring Georgia.

Mukhtarli continued his activism in Tbilisi and participated in a series of protests in front of the Azerbaijani embassy. Mukhtarli’s Facebook posts often criticized government corruption and the persecution of activists in Azerbaijan. Mukhtarli also alleged on Facebook that he was being subjected to surveillance by unidentified people.

Mukhtarli told his lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, who spoke to him in custody, that unidentified men stopped him a few blocks from his house, pushed him into a car, and drove him to a park, where they put a bag over his head and beat him

Mukhtarli’s
and Mustafayeva’s residence permits for Georgia formally expired in
September 2016, when Georgian authorities refused to extend them. But
the couple continued to legally reside in Georgia, as Azerbaijani
passport holders do not require visas for Georgia and can remain in the
country for up to one year.

On 29 May, at about 7pm,
after meeting a friend in a café in central Tbilisi, Mukhtarli called
Mustafayeva to let her know that he was on his way home. But Mustafayeva
told Human Rights Watch that Mukhtarli did not return. The next
morning, Mustafayeva filed a missing person’s report with the local
police and alerted local media and civil society groups. On the
afternoon of 30 May, Mukhtarli resurfaced in Baku, in the investigative
unit of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan.

Mukhtarli
told his lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, who spoke to him in custody, that
unidentified men stopped him a few blocks from his house, pushed him
into a car, and drove him to a park, where they put a bag over his head
and beat him. His captors spoke Georgian among themselves and addressed
him in Russian.

After he complained that he could not breathe
and had heart problems, the assailants instead blindfolded him with a
shirt and used scotch tape to hold it in place. Sadigov told Human
Rights Watch that Mukhtarli’s nose was broken and he saw bruises on his
forehead, left temple, right
eye, and elsewhere on his face. Mukhtarli also complained of severe
pain in his chest, which he believed was caused by a fractured rib.

Mukhtarli
told Sadigov that his captors changed vehicles twice. The assailants in
the second vehicle spoke Azeri and brought him to an Azerbaijani border
checkpoint in Balakan district at about 11pm on 29 May. At the
checkpoint, unidentified people removed his blindfold and told him that
he had illegally crossed the border, and someone also planted €10,000 on
him. Azerbaijani authorities held Mukhtarli at the border checkpoint
overnight and in the early hours of 30 May took him to a nearby closed
border pass zone, and photographed him to make it look as though he were
trespassing there. At this point, Azerbaijani authorities detained him,
handcuffed him, and transported him to Baku.

Azerbaijani
law requires a person to show a valid passport before crossing the
Azerbaijani-Georgia border, but Mukhtarli’s passport remains in Tbilisi.

Georgian authorities should immediately investigate Mukhtarli’s kidnapping, including whether Georgian law enforcement agents were complicit in illegally transferring Mukhtarli across the border

“This
kidnapping is clumsy and cowardly,” Gogia said. “No one for a minute
will believe that Mukhtarli voluntarily tried to enter Azerbaijan, from
where he fled to escape persecution. If Azerbaijani authorities have
evidence of wrongdoing they could have pursued him through extradition.
Instead, he was abducted by cartoonish gangsters.”

Georgian
authorities should immediately investigate Mukhtarli’s kidnapping,
including whether Georgian law enforcement agents were complicit in
illegally transferring Mukhtarli across the border or whether they
actively participated in his kidnapping, Human Rights Watch said.

Both
Georgia and Azerbaijan are members of the Council of Europe and parties
to the European Convention on Human Rights, and any involvement of, or
acquiescence by, state agents in the kidnapping and transfer of
Mukhtarli to Azerbaijan is a serious violation of the convention.

In cases involving unlawful transfer of individuals out of Russia, the European Court of Human Rights has warned
that “any extra-judicial transfer or extraordinary rendition, by its
deliberate circumvention of due process, is an absolute negation of the
rule of law and the values protected by the Convention. It therefore
amounts to a violation of the most basic rights guaranteed by the
Convention.”

Mukhtarli is expected to face a closed court
hearing on 31 May, to determine whether he will be held in pretrial
custody during the investigation.

“Azerbaijan has an
appalling record of harassing and prosecuting government critics, and we
are seriously concerned for Mukhtarli’s safety,” Gogia said.
“Azerbaijani authorities should immediately free him and allow him to
reunite with his wife in Georgia.”

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
If you have any queries about republishing please contact us.
Please check individual images for licensing details.

Recent comments

openDemocracy is an independent, non-profit global media outlet, covering world affairs, ideas and culture, which seeks to challenge power and encourage democratic debate across the world. We publish high-quality investigative reporting and analysis; we train and mentor journalists and wider civil society; we publish in Russian, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese and English.